The last couple of days have really been hectic for my app "Radar Now!." The extreme weather coupled with the panic caused by the tornado devastation across the country has caused a huge upswing in downloads and usage of the app. As a result, there have been periods when the app simply wouldn't function due to the overloaded server. Previously, the highest activity for a day had been around 230,000 uses. On Tuesday that number was 430,000 and Wednesday it was over 550,000. Huge numbers. Downloads have also been spectacular with Tuesday being a record at 14,300 and Wednesday beating that with over 15,500.
The users have had the predictable reaction. On Tuesday, when the server first started bogging down, there were a slew of one star comments in the market, my favorite being: one star by skip (May 24, 2011) Blows big black donkey balls By Wednesday, I had made enough changes to the backend to handle the load for the most part and also had instituted "rationing" so that when the server hit a certain load, it would just send back a message saying it was overloaded instead of hanging. I also started posting in the market an explanation of what was happening and apology for the inconvenience. I started getting messages like this: five stars by Christine (May 25, 2011) Works great on my desire. Problem today but understandable with all the severe weather here in Missouri. Working fine again now. I also received a number of emails showing sympathy and encouragement. The market now has a bunch of five star comments (and of course the inevitable one star as well) The bottom line is that by telling the users what the issues are and being proactive, honest and prompt with explanations, they are giving my app a chance and being somewhat patient. A good lesson for any business to take to heart. -John Coryat -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en.
